About | STimmonsIllustration

Welcome to my site

I am from Dublin, Ireland and I live in West Yorkshire, England.

I began my illustration journey in the 1990s in Art School. I then took a different direction, enjoying many years working in Visual Arts, Hospitality and Education.

In 2020, I moved to England and re-started my personal creative practice while continuing to work in Education, Heritage and the Creative Arts.

I joined The Good Ship Illustration online courses in 2021 (you can find them at this link). The Good Ship extended crew have been an invaluable support throughout my process of changing my creative direction. Prior to this , as an independent creative, I curated numerous projects and publications. You can find out more info about my Curation Practice here.

I love to invent characters, and generate places for stories to take place. Museum Diorama and Folk Art are aesthetics that stimulate my creative imagination. Mexican retablos are an example of make and do culture that I aspire to. I make printing tools from recycled wood and packaging and l draw and paint onto sumptuously mixed colours on paper. I also work onto collage using recycled bits of paper. My sketchbooks have generated research for fiction and non-fiction subjects. I mostly sketch from life and then re-work ideas back at my desk (analogue and digital).

Collaboration and DIY culture has been an important creative starting point for me throughout my artistic career. I was a founding member of an artist - led collective VIA (initiated in 2001 in NYC) and I founded and managed Artists Studios - Commonplace - in Dublin for ten years (2006-2016).

I continue to devise creative play activities for adults and youths of all abilities. Along with CPD (Continued Professional Development) training for educators (building confidence and tools for delivering creative curriculum). You can see some of the facilitation work I do independently and with Everybody Arts (Halifax, UK) here.

People who inspire me (for their life trajectories and creative invention over time) include, /Edward Lear/John Millington Synge/Cuala Press/Paul Hogarth/Josephine Baker/Helen Borten/Peter Kennard/Blind Boy/John P. Miller/Leonora Carrington/Louise Bourgeois/Lee Miller (among many others, who I will be posting about on my blog )

Please feel free to get in touch through my contact page here x

January 2024